The Trials
by Cabin16 - Nemesis
Summary: When the voice emerged from within head, Thaddeus tried to make do with it. However, when a mysterious sword appears in his life, he quickly finds out that he simply can't run and pretend anymore. Now he must set off on a quest to pass the unachievable trials. Does he have the heart to pass or will he break under the pressure of the foreboding trials?
1. Prologue

**NOTE: THIS IS AN ORIGINAL STORY. ANY AND ALL CHARACTERS COME FROM ME AND MY IMAGINATION. SO PLEASE DON'T USE THEM WITHOUT ASKING FOR PERMISSION FROM ME. THANK YOU.**

**EDIT: SADLY, THIS STORY WILL COME TO A STOP HERE. TO CONTINUE WITH THIS STORY, PLEASE BE SURE TO FOLLOW IT OVER AT FICTIONPRESS UNDER THE SAME NAME. I WILL BE DOING MONTHLY UPDATES OVER THERE. I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE NEXT MONTH.**

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**Synopsis**

All Thaddeus wants is a normal peaceful life but it seems life has other plans.

When the voice emerged from within head, Thaddeus tried to make do with it. However, when a mysterious sword appears in his life, he quickly finds out that he simply can't run and pretend anymore.

Now he must set off on a quest to pass the unachievable trials. Does he have the heart to pass or will he break under the pressure of the foreboding trials?

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**Prologue**

He was running as fast as he could. His red robes flapped behind him as he went from corridor to corridor. He still couldn't believe what had happened. Nothing like that has ever happened while he has been in the Temple of the Seven. He may still be new compared to the others but he knew that being one of the Seven Sages would bring divinity into his life. He just didn't expect to what level this divinity would be. He turned a corner and found the person he was seeking at the other end of the corridor.

"Master Sage!" He called out. The Master Sage stopped in his tracks and faced the racing boy. He was not much older from the newest sage, perhaps a few years to the boy's eighteen. When the young sage finally reached the Master Sage, he bent over with his hands on his knees as he panted from his run across the entire temple.

"What is wrong, young one?" The Master Sage asked after the breathless sage failed to speak. "If you will please, I have other matters I must attend to."

"Master Sage," Began the boy, recovering his breath as he tried to finish his message. "The Chamber of Prophecy."

"What about the Chamber?"

"You must come, Master." The young sage tells him. "You have to see."

"See what, child?"

"There's a new prophecy." The boy finally reveals. The color drains from the older sage's face. A new prophecy is exactly what the Master Sage does not need at this time.

"Tell me everything." He commanded as he and the young sage raced back to the Chamber of Prophecy.

"I was cleaning the chamber as I had been instructed to, I was near finished, when the whole chamber was engulfed in a brilliant light. I shielded my eyes and when I dared reopen them, the chamber was different. The walls were polished anew as well as the floors. The weathered writing was refined once more," The boy informs before glancing back to the older sage. "And a new prophecy was transcribed upon the Wall of Man."

The Master became pensive at the reveal. A prophecy brings its own qualms, he knew for a fact as he was facing the qualms for another. Both sages turned the final corner and the Chamber of Prophecy loomed ahead of them. The Master Sage couldn't help but be filled with a sense of dread. Even without seeing the new prophecy he sensed that his quest - his mission for the realm itself - hinged on the outcome of this new prophecy.

The older sage came to a stop in front of the Wall of Man while the younger one remained a few steps back. He read the prophecy once, twice- three times when he threw his head towards the heavens and sent a prayer to the Creator.

_Our beloved Creator, why choose me for this quest only to make it extremely difficult to execute?_

_Any can fill this role but only one can be worthy of the role._ Answered a familiar voice he knew to be the Creator's. _You must find the one, Jeremiah._

"Master Sage?" Called out the novice sage. "What does this mean?"

"This means, young one, that this is the trials that must be faced." Explained the Master Sage. Jeremiah, the First Sage, spun on his heels and marched out of the Chambers with his newest member in tow. "We must go. There is no time to waste."


	2. The Voice of Reason and Absurdity

**EDIT: SADLY, THIS STORY WILL COME TO A STOP HERE. TO CONTINUE WITH THIS STORY, PLEASE BE SURE TO FOLLOW IT OVER AT FICTIONPRESS UNDER THE SAME NAME. I WILL BE DOING MONTHLY UPDATES OVER THERE. I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE NEXT MONTH.**

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**Chapter 1**

**The Voice of Reason and Absurdity**

Jumping off the boulder that I have been sitting on for the past half hour, I dust off my trousers before trailing through the forest back to my village. "I can't believe they didn't show."

_Of course you can, why would they show up?_ My brain counters bitterly.

"Because we always meet up on Outlook Peak everyday at noon. I wonder why they didn't come."

_You know why. It's because of you! Can't you see that they don't want to be seen with you?!_ I growl softly to myself, frustrated with my recent dark thoughts.

It wasn't always like this, I was a normal boy. At least as normal as a poor farmer boy can actually be. However, ever since I turned fifteen two years ago, these negative thoughts have infested my head. Though these thoughts have never been violent towards me, it has crushed my morale more than once already. Despite the fact that I absolutely detest them, I can't help but see some truth to them. I am and will always be nothing so why should anyone care about me?

_Like these forests, you will be alone forever._

On that terrifying thought, I stop short of the forest's edge and stare at the village that's in the distance. A crowd of people who live there and couldn't care less about a poor farmer's boy like me, let alone know my name. Panic strikes through me and seizes my breathing, making them come in shallow and wheezy. With a long shaky breath, I continue my trek back to the village.

The village isn't far from the forest, only a mere two miles away where the village is safe enough if a dangerous animal pops out of the forest. Nevertheless, walking alone with a dark voice rattling inside my head is probably the last thing I should be doing right now. I just want to go home to numb the voice for at least a few hours. With the dark voice nagging and putting me down along the entire way, I finally reach the village. _Now to get home on the other side._ I think, weaving between the late afternoon crowd.

_Why bother coming back? No one wants you here!_ The dark voice exclaims, making me look down at the ground in shame as I walk.

"Hey, Thaddeus! Wait up!" Calls out a feminine voice. I turn around to see a girl with braided dark brown hair and tanned skin racing towards me in her fine merchant's clothing. My breath catches in my throat and my heart skips a beat when a smile creeps onto her face.

"Viola! Hi." I greet through a tightening throat.

"I didn't think I was going to get to see you today." She says as she catches her breath. I quirk an eyebrow as she continues. "I guess you finished earlier than expected."

"What?" I ask with confusion. "What you are talking about, Viola."

"Nathaniel told me that you wouldn't be able to go to the Peak today because you'd be too busy helping out your father." She explains.

"Where the living inferno would he get that idea?" I question. Don't get me wrong, there has been times where I had to help my dad with the farm, but I always - and I mean always - found time for our daily meet up at the Peak.

"He said that you told him that." I crunch up my face at this. _Why would he tell her that?_ I ponder to myself.

_To get you out of their lives, of course._ Replies the bitter voice.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that he lied to me?" She asks, seemingly noticing my internal conflict.

"Yeah, V. That wasn't true." I confirm.

"Well, now it makes sense why he insisted that we'd do something different together." She lets out a frustrated groan and paces in front of me. "He is such a jerk sometimes. The next time I see Nathaniel-"

"Viola, don't worry about it. I'm sure he didn't mean any harm by it." I find myself saying.

"But Thaddeus-" She begins when I interrupt again.

"You know Nathaniel. He likes to joke around and mess with me all the time. It's what he does."

"I don't get why you defend Nathaniel so much. One of these days, you're going to have to stand up to him and make him stop treating you like this." She says as she shakes her head.

_Why _do _I justify everything Nathaniel does to me?_ I ask myself, only now realizing this habit.

'_Cause he is the butcher's son and apprentice. We may not like each other but we both don't have a death wish._ The voice answers. It's always nice to know that the dark voice doesn't seek our ultimate demise. Viola begins to walk through the semi-crowded market and I fall in stride next to her.

"Well, at least I'm glad I told him that I couldn't spend time with him either." She states with a mischievous smile.

"Aren't you afraid of him, Vi?"

"Why? Just because of who he is and what he does? No. My father is the most respected man in the entire realm. He's almost like royalty. You know if only the Seven would proclaim him as such. Nathaniel would have to be an idiot to mess with him and me."

"But your father is in Allurasia, is he not?" I ask, picturing the mysterious city that is the supposed home of the Guardian Allura. From the rumors within the village, it is said that the city is ten times larger than our quaint little home and has a giant statue of a beautiful woman said to be the first great guardian of the world. Whenever Viola asks her father about it, he always describes it as the most stunning city he has ever seen and one befitting for the Guardian.

"Yeah, he was. He sent word that he is on his way back not that long ago." She says, a little giddy before letting out a sigh. "Sometimes I wish that my father would take me to see Allurasia. I have always wanted to see Allura. Did you know that Allura, as she's the guardian of the heart, can reveal to you who you truly love?" She inquires.

"No, I did not. Though I'm sure you don't need to see Allura to know some Nathaniel-like fellow would be your loved one."

"Oh, don't be silly. It can be absolutely anyone. Perhaps even-" She stops in her tracks as she spots something in the distance. Following her gaze, I realize that she has found her father. "Daddy! I'll see you later Thaddeus." She waves and begins to run off.

_She would never love a boy such as you. You are simply beneath her._ The dark voice belittles. I begin to walk off when Viola returns to me.

"Hey, before I forget, how about we meet up at the Peak tomorrow and not invite Nathaniel as revenge for today?" She proposes with a mischievous smile. Her smile is so contagious that I find myself smiling as well.

"Okay. Tomorrow at the Peak then." And with that, she leaves smiling to find her father. That girl. If it wasn't for her, my life would be beyond dreary.

_I wouldn't get your hopes up, if I were you. There's no way in a million years that she would see you as an equal._ I hang my head at the voice's cold hard truth.

If Mr. Diamond is like royalty for many people, then that means Viola is a princess and no princess would ever be with a poor farmer's boy.


End file.
